* Please give blood *

cevans · Post by **cevans** » 19 Jul 2004, 15:12

Hi

Just to let everyone know that they can donate blood today at Portobello town hall between 2.30 and 4 pm and 5.30 and 8 pm.

See you all there!!

DG · Post by DG » 19 Jul 2004, 17:17

Thanks for this info, Cevans.

I've managed to find out dates and times just after the events.

Hope they get a good turn out.

See you there!

DG

Porty · Post by **Porty** » 19 Jul 2004, 18:46

As a direct result of this thread I gave Blood for the first time since 1980. Thanks for the reminder.

Guest · Post by **Guest** » 20 Jul 2004, 16:48

An excellent use of the forum - well done! BUT, if you had been checking the 'What's On' page of the website you would already have known about this event!

http://porty.org.uk/news/index.php

If you know of an event happening in the Portobello area that isn't listed, please email details to:

portyevents@blueyonder.co.uk

DG · Post by DG » 03 Nov 2004, 10:20

An old thread with a new date

There will be a blood donor service at the Town Hall on Monday 15th November - 2.30pm to 4.30pm and 5.30pm to 7.30pm.

Quite good timing following our Halloween festivities! Wouldn't it be good to try to get a record number of people donating this time around

DG

Porty · Post by **Porty** » 03 Nov 2004, 11:26

DG wrote:
Quite good timing following our Halloween festivities! Wouldn't it be good to try to get a record number of people donating this time around

DG

Great idea. Donors post here after they've done the deed.

DG · Post by DG » 03 Nov 2004, 14:47

Moderators, can this thread get a sticky status up until the day after the blood letting

?

DG

bellybabe · Post by **bellybabe** » 03 Nov 2004, 17:20

I think making this a sticky thread is a good idea...but don't know how

.
I will try to get along to it, but feel really very disappointed with the Scottish Blood service or whatever they're called. They complain (quite rightly) all the while about not having enough donors but they do very little to encourage people to continue to donate, and have made it almost impossible for me to so it several times! I went along to Lauriston Place once, with my family and my good intentions, having just sacrificed my English reward system to start over up here, and convinced othr half to do it too. I told them my blood had been screened for...i can't even remember what it's called now...and they looked blankly at me having never heard of it. In England you have to be screened for it if you ever spent time in a malarial zone.
Then they proceeded to entice other half back every few months...but not me. They ignored me. Never a card they sent me.
Then I decided to try again at a town hall one, but a couple of weks before it realised I was due a travel vaccine. Being a responsible wee soul i called their help line to ask if I could still donate. They said they didn't know but took all my details and promised someone would call back. Nobody ever did. I gave my home number, my mobile, my postal address and email address...and they didn't bother to contact me, so i didn't risk it. I was a bit stunned that they would not bother to call back a willing donor with some information.
And the last few times I've had colds.

Oh, and I can't believe they still won't let gay men donate. They're in the dark ages.
But I'm a stubborn so and so so will try once again!

ecm · Post by **ecm** » 03 Nov 2004, 19:37

They keep knocking me back for being anaemic but I might try again this time.
The initial thumb prick is much worse than the giving of the blood, don't you think?

ecm · Post by **ecm** » 03 Nov 2004, 19:38

FFS - thumb p-rick!!!!

bellybabe · Post by **bellybabe** » 03 Nov 2004, 19:41

Um...I don't think you should be saying FFS... Especially a born lady like you.

ecm · Post by **ecm** » 03 Nov 2004, 19:46

Bellybabe wrote:Um...I don't think you should be saying FFS... Especially a born lady like you.

Right enough - I am a Ladeeee!

Sorry.

bellybabe · Post by **bellybabe** » 03 Nov 2004, 19:53

Oh, Ecm, I wish I was as beautiful as you. Any chance you could show me how to get my make-up as perfect as yours?
I'd give anything to look like you.
*sigh*

DG · Post by DG » 04 Nov 2004, 09:45

Ecm, I wondered where my frock had gone...and my favourite parasole

Love the photo though!

It certainly sounds like the blood donor system is far from perfect - however, good on people for giving it another try. The fact remains that there continues to be a lack of donated blood in this country, although point taken that it could be easier to donate and increase existing donated blood levels. (

Makes me think about recycling in this country...but I wont go on about that here.)

Thanks for making this a sticky so it doesn't get lost over the next week or so.

DG

PS I absolutely hate the thumb p-rick test too

Porty · Post by **Porty** » 05 Nov 2004, 00:32

Bellybabe wrote:I think making this a sticky thread is a good idea...but don't know how .
I will try to get along to it, but feel really very disappointed with the Scottish Blood service or whatever they're called. They complain (quite rightly) all the while about not having enough donors but they do very little to encourage people to continue to donate, and have made it almost impossible for me to so it several times! I went along to Lauriston Place once, with my family and my good intentions, having just sacrificed my English reward system to start over up here, and convinced othr half to do it too. I told them my blood had been screened for...i can't even remember what it's called now...and they looked blankly at me having never heard of it. In England you have to be screened for it if you ever spent time in a malarial zone.
Then they proceeded to entice other half back every few months...but not me. They ignored me. Never a card they sent me.
Then I decided to try again at a town hall one, but a couple of weks before it realised I was due a travel vaccine. Being a responsible wee soul i called their help line to ask if I could still donate. They said they didn't know but took all my details and promised someone would call back. Nobody ever did. I gave my home number, my mobile, my postal address and email address...and they didn't bother to contact me, so i didn't risk it. I was a bit stunned that they would not bother to call back a willing donor with some information.
And the last few times I've had colds.
Oh, and I can't believe they still won't let gay men donate. They're in the dark ages.
But I'm a stubborn so and so so will try once again!

Its like getting Blood into a stone.

mr magnolia · Post by **mr magnolia** » 05 Nov 2004, 13:34

DG / Bellybabe (?)

my research suggests you have been to Paddington Bear Land.

When we returned from there in 1998 we were told never to darken the doors of the BTS again as we were at risk of carrying Shagers disease

Which, reassuringly, is fatal, has an incubation period of up to 40 yrs and is not tested for by BTS police.

bellybabe · Post by **bellybabe** » 05 Nov 2004, 13:55

Well, very close. It was the Amazonian jungle that did it. But in England they'd developed a test, to see if you were carrying it, and I had the test and was negative. So I can give blood - I think they just don't like me.

DG · Post by DG » 05 Nov 2004, 14:22

Mr Magnolia

my research suggests you have been to Paddington Bear Land.

Yes, your research is correct. Does this mean we wont be able to donate? And, what is Shagers disease? I looked it up, it wasn't recognised and went into shag-gers disease instead

Can you shed any light on this?

DG

DG · Post by DG » 05 Nov 2004, 14:24

That was sha-ggers disease!

DG

mr magnolia · Post by **mr magnolia** » 05 Nov 2004, 14:31

um

may have my spelling wrong but what we were told was that if you had strayed from the built environment and camped / trekked for more than 3? nights in any wild and wooly bits you were apparently at risk of having been bitten by the love bug. er, shagers bug, or mosquito or whatever it was.

Perhaps if , as BB says, they had a test for it in Ingerland they may have here now? Dunno. we should probably ask when attending?

DG · Post by DG » 05 Nov 2004, 14:38

Yeah, this sounds familiar and I'm sure we watched a programme about this - I just hadn't been aware of it's name. We spent some time in the Amazon basin (my favorite part of Peru) so I think your right, we should tell them when we go along.

DG

Howdie · Post by **Howdie** » 09 Nov 2004, 22:30

Bellybabe wrote:Oh, and I can't believe they still won't let gay men donate. They're in the dark ages.
But I'm a stubborn so and so so will try once again!

Agree completely Bellybabe - they won't let gay men donate but they will let promiscuous men/women who may have at one time slept with a gay man/woman during their many encounters??? Doesn't make sense to me, slaps of discrimination.

Had a similar discussion on another forum I am on and one girl there was told she could not donate because she had Polycystic Ovary Syndrome!!

- why?? is the question.

Have to say, in their defence, BTS have been spot on in sending me reminders about when they will be in my area. I donate whenever they are in town.

bellybabe · Post by **bellybabe** » 09 Nov 2004, 23:36

Howdie wrote:Doesn't make sense to me, slaps of discrimination.

Amen to that. Intravenous drug users, the majority of whom are straight, have historically been the highest proportion of the population of the Lothians infected with HIV. The fastest rising section of society for new infections is straight people.

Anyone can get HIV. Maybe they should ban everyone who's ever had sex.

Makes my (non-gay man and therefore "clean") blood boil.

But I will try and remember to toddle along on Monday...
BB

DG · Post by DG » 15 Nov 2004, 08:39

Anyone else planning to go along today?

DG

bellybabe · Post by **bellybabe** » 15 Nov 2004, 09:27

I'll be there at some point.
Funnily enough, after my rant about their lack of encouragement, they did write and ask me to go along to Lauriston Place this week!

DG · Post by DG » 15 Nov 2004, 09:57

Glad to hear they finallly got in touch with you, BB. I'm going along today after work but suspect they may refuse my blood from what other people are saying. I can only try!

DG

Poppy · Post by **Poppy** » 15 Nov 2004, 19:40

I did my bit late this pm and met Bellybabe there. Had to leave before she'd finished so don't know if she fainted as she threatened to do

Afterwards I went to treat myself to some Maya Gold choccie from Kitcheners - and left with a wee bar of that to sustain me on my way home AND a box of bite sized Espresso choccies. Yum Yum!!

bellybabe · Post by **bellybabe** » 15 Nov 2004, 19:51

Erm...I could lie and say I was fine but I was witnessed swaying dangerously and talking inanely by another POLer so had better be honest.
There was a bit of a problem with the needle stick, and she's given me a haemotoma. That meant I was in constant pain for the whole 20 minutes, and my blood was not very happy about it so began to clot, making it all even more difficult, and by the time it was over I only had five minutes before I had to be at the community centre to pick up number one son. So i gulped down a small cup of orange juice and one Club, and then dashed off - forget 20 minutes' rest and take it easy! - and as soon as the fresh air hit me, my faculties left me. Didn't faint but when I finally made it home, aided by number one son, I collapsed on the sofa barely able to stay awake for quite some time.
But I'm fine now.
(Was going to put a truly representative smiley there but they're not working just now...)

Porty · Post by **Porty** » 15 Nov 2004, 20:15

They would not let me donate as I have been to the US in the last month.

However, Bruce and his cousin donated for the first time.

Poppy · Post by **Poppy** » 15 Nov 2004, 20:20

Bruce and his cousin donated for the first time.

Yes, it was good to see quite a few PHS donors there. Have they changed the age for donating for the first time?

Poppy · Post by **Poppy** » 15 Nov 2004, 20:22

Bellybabe said

swaying dangerously and talking inanely

Wasn't that last Thursday!!

Sorry, meant to say wasn't that all of us last Thursday!

Maria · Post by **Maria** » 15 Nov 2004, 20:33

I saw Bellybabe after her ordeal. Concerned for her well-being I asked her if she wanted me to accompany her and her family home. "No thanks! I'll be fine," she replied blearily. "I've got the pushchair."

Number one son obviously thought the same as me as he had a look of consternation on his face as she left the hall with cries of "Mush!"

Seriously, glad you're feeling better. Think that arm may hurt for a fair bit yet though, by the sounds of things

DG · Post by DG » 15 Nov 2004, 21:35

We're just back from donating. They took our blood after all (despite all my protests about flu jags, South America, etc...).

Bellybabe, what an awful experience - hope you're feeling better now - take it easy and put your feet up (if you can!).

The hall was very busy when we arrived. Seemed to be quite a good turn out

.

DG

Poppy · Post by **Poppy** » 15 Nov 2004, 21:56

The afternoon session seemed to be busy too.

I too would like to wish Bellybabe a quick recovery. That's a nice wee boy she's got!

Mimpty · Post by **Mimpty** » 16 Nov 2004, 14:29

[quote="Bellybabe"]There was a bit of a problem with the needle stick, and she's given me a haemotoma. That meant I was in constant pain for the whole 20 minutes[/quote]

You might be the person my "injector" was referring to after I commented on how (relatively) painless that was!
Sorry to hear about your bad time, Bellybabe. It was the thumb prick that was the shocker for me. Probably revenge for the last time I gave blood though - it spurted into the nurses face!

Talk Porty ~ Portobello

* Please give blood *

Blood Bank (Updated for 15th November)